183G.] 



Notices of Books. 



157 



Philosophy of Botany, addressed in 1833 to the British Association for 

 the Advancement of Science, we may abstain from offering our feeble 

 eulogium. " This country has, till lately, been remarkably barren of 

 discoveries in vegetable anatomy, since the time of Grew, who 

 was one of the fathers of that branch of science. Whatever pro- 

 gress has been made in the determination of the exact nature of 

 those minute organs, by the united powers of which the func- 

 tions of vegetation are sustained, it has been chiefly in foreign coun- 

 tries that it has taken place : the names of Mirbel, Moldenhauer, 

 Kiesor, Link and Amici, stand alone during the period when their works 

 were published ; and it has only been within a very few years that 

 those of Brown, Valentine, Griffith and Slack have entered into com- 

 petition with the anatomists of Germany and France." Here, it will 

 be seen, Mr. Griffith is classed with Brown — Princeps Botanicorum, 

 the successor to the mantle of Linneus— -as one of the founders of the 

 English school of philosophical botany. Mr. Griffith has expressed a 

 lively interest in the success of this Journal, and, what is likely to 

 ensure that success, is, that we are to have his aid in the way of 

 contribution. 



Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 

 Nos. 3 and 4. 



Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. 

 Appendix to vol. 3d. 1835. 



The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society in octavo which our read- 

 ers are already aware* was established in 1834, to supersede, in some 

 measure, the more bulky Transactions in quarto, thrives admirably, we 

 are happy to observe by the two last Numbers on our table. 



These numbers contain a great deal of matter which might be made 

 available for our pages ; but as we are pressed for room, owing to the 

 number and value of our original communications ( a cause for not ex- 

 tracting from other publications which we hope will always be in opera- 

 tion ), we can do no more than indicate the papers that seem to be 

 particularly interesting to Madras readers. These are Dr. Ainslie's 

 Observations on Atmospheric Influence ; Captain Swanston's Memoir of 

 the Primitive Church of Malayala ; Colonel Sykes on the Land Tenures 

 of the Dekkan; Captain Low's History of Tenasserim, Mr. Edye's 

 Description of the Sea Ports on the Coast of Malabar, &c. The latter 

 contains a great many very valuable observations, more especially on 

 the timber, and other products, of the western coast of the Peninsula. 



* Madras Journal, October 1831, p. 359, 



